Girl Pricked By Needle At Boston Playground
BOSTON (CBS) -- A young girl is being treated with drugs to prevent HIV after she was pricked by a needle at a Boston playground.
Seven-year-old Cadence picked up the needle while at a tennis camp at the Iacono Playground in Hyde Park Friday after a friend spotted it on the ground.
"I felt a pinch, and then I looked down and I was bleeding," Cadence told WBZ-TV.
She is undergoing the HIV and hepatitis treatment as a precaution.
Her grandmother sat beside Cadence in the car as her mother rushed her to the hospital.
"She was trembling and crying so badly," her grandmother said. "It's horrifying."
City officials said crews have collected more than 3,200 discarded needles around Boston since June.
"The reported incident at Iacono Playground is a tragedy, and while the City of Boston has launched comprehensive efforts to remove needles from our City's parks, it is clear that there is more work to do," a spokeswoman for Mayor Marty Walsh said. "The Boston Parks Department strives to have clean, fun and safe spaces for all Boston's residents and visitors to enjoy."
The nonprofit group that runs the summer camp at the playground vows to work with the city to sweep every park for needles before kids arrive.
"We also sit down with the kids as well to talk to them about how dangerous this is," said Scott Taniar with Tenacity.
Dr. Mallika Marshall's advice:
Anyone who finds a needle should call the Mayor's Hotline at 617-635-4500.